7 - Representation and Violence: Gender Equality and Sex Selection

Summary

Do quotas mandating women’s political representation unsettle social norms enough to foment backlash that precludes future generations of daughters? I examine the extent to which diminishing sons’ traditionally stronger economic and political position alters preferences for male over female offspring. Overall, this analysis provides decisive evidence that backlash immediately follows quota-mandated female representation that enables enforcement of women’s substantial inheritance rights. Exposure to female gatekeepers lowers the proportion of daughters mothers bear by 5 to 20 percentage points, relative to women without access to female representatives. What about women with the greatest bargaining power? New political representation that expands opportunities for women to claim gender-equal economic rights might shift behavior amongst the youngest cohorts of mothers exposed to both changes (female-led political institutions and substantive economic rights) early in familial formation. At the margin, this group of women appear more inclined to give birth to daughters. Overall, analysis suggests a slight shift in favor of bearing and raising healthy sons for all but this youngest cohort of mothers. This chapter finds political representation enabling women to claim crucial economic rights to inherit property is not sufficient on its own to bring about meaningful or benign change.